Robert Joffe, the lawyer who served as presiding partner of Cravath, Swaine & Moore from 1999 until 2006, has died of cancer. Joffe was 66, the Am Law Daily reports. A Cravath lawyer for 42 years, Joffe was known for his expertise representing directors on corporate boards. After the financial crisis, he represented Fannie Mae, General Motors and Citigroup. Joffe was proud of the time he spent on pro bono matters and encouraged other lawyers at the firm to do the same, the story says. “By all accounts Joffe was as driven as any big firm partner routinely returning midnight…

Sly Stone has sued his former manager for $50 million, claiming the businessman kept up to $30 million in royalties and leveraged Stone’s intellectual property. The suit says Stone, whose real name is Sylvester Stewart, has been homeless at times and lives on Social Security, the Associated Press reports. The complaint alleges former manager Gerald Goldstein, his companion Claire Levine and lawyer Glenn Stone set up several companies to divert royalty payments and borrow against the Sly and the Family Stone name, the story says. The suit claims Goldstein registered the Sly and the Family Stone name with the U.S.…

A former Chicago lawyer who sells clothing that makes airport travel easier sees opportunity in the new iPad. Scott Jordan proclaims on his website that his company sells the first and only clothing line with a pocket for the iPad. The website was also quick to note a Sunday article in the New York Times that reported on Jordan's travel fashion savvy. The Times told of Jordan’s 22-pocket Scottevest that holds an iPod, cell phone, glasses, wallet and other items. In the fall, Jordan plans to add a trench coat to his line that can hold a change of clothes…

Why are so many underwater borrowers continuing to pay their mortgages, even though it would be cheaper to just walk away? Millions of borrowers owe more than their homes are worth, but most continue to pay, the New York Times reports. Lenders on the other hand, feel free to play hardball in an effort to maintain healthy profits. What gives? University of Arizona law professor Brent White suggests an answer. He says that borrowers suffer from a “norm asymmetry” that is forcing them to share a disproportionate burden of the housing collapse. The Times summarizes his argument this way: “It’s…

In a major setback to a defendant who admitted at trial earlier today that he fatally shot an abortion doctor as he was attending church, the judge in the Kansas case has ruled out the possibility of permitting the jury to convict Scott Roeder on a lesser manslaughter charge, reports the Associated Press. Because abortion is legal in Kansas and because Dr. George Tiller did not pose an imminent threat to the fetuses Roeder sought to protect, the defendant cannot show he had an unreasonable but honest belief that he was justified in killing the physician at his Wichita church,…

A K&L Gates bill for $710,322 in legal fees and $95,868 in costs for defending a contested $1.2 million estate sparked objections from lawyers for family members arguing over a 91-year-old man's will. But even after a Massachusetts Probate & Family Court negotiated a $574,322 compromise, attorney Thomas Maffei of Griesinger, Tighe & Maffei appealed the fee award. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court agreed that the second bill might still be too high in a ruling released this week, sending the matter back to Probate & Family Court with instructions to hear evidence about whether the bill is reasonable, according…

In an action that is sure to make other well-known law firms sit up and take notice, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has sued Kelley Drye & Warren over the firm's alleged policy of de-equitizing partners at age 70 and thereafter "undercompensating" them for their work. The age discrimination lawsuit filed today in federal court in Manhattan also contends that the firm retaliated against attorney Eugene T. D'Ablemont after he filed an age discrimination charge against Kelley Drye with the commission in 2008. D'Ablemont's annual "bonus" payment was cut from $75,000 to $25,000, the EEOC alleges, even as his…

A lack of opportunity and access is restricting the number of women judges on the state and federal bench nationwide despite plenty of qualified candidates, a new study has found. And the situation is worse in some jurisdictions than others: Even as the number of female law school graduates and law firm associates tops 45 percent, there are no women at all serving in a number of jurisdictions, including all of the federal courts in Montana, New Hampshire and the Northern District of New York, reports the study (PDF). It was conducted by the Center for Women in Government and…

Headlines about school district battles over student hairstyles are now focusing on Ohio, where a mother of an 11-year-old boy says he was publicly humiliated by a teacher and a classroom aide and has filed a federal lawsuit over their alleged "gender-based harassment" of the boy. When the unidentified boy was younger, some children teased him about his professionally styled, apparently shoulder-length hair. At that point, his mother, Amanda Anoai, says she told her son to toughen up or cut his hair, reports the Associated Press. But when her son told her that the teacher and the aide had made…

The man accused of killing abortion doctor George Tiller last May has taken the stand in his Wichita, Kan., trial and admitted he pulled the trigger. Defendant Scott Roeder explained his motive: his belief that abortion is murder, the Associated Press reports. The Wichita Eagle reported this exchange: Public Defender Mark Rudy: "You've sat here and listened to the trial. Do you dispute any testimony presented by the state." Roeder: “I do not.” Judge Warren Wilbert said before the trial began that he may allow the jury to consider the possibility of a lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter. Kansas statute…